Every year, teams of Rhode Island middle school students compete in a Robotics Challenge at URI, sponsored by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), the Federal Highway Administration and the URITC. Robots built by the student teams completed a challenge course consisting of commuting-themed transportation missions, such as moving disabled vehicles to a garage, delivering food to an airplane and picking up passengers at a bus stop.

Teams were also required to enter a poster contest, in which they depicte transportation-related careers. Students are required to belong to an after-school robotics club. They use robotic kits based on Lego building bricks.